Putting together my Hot Rod Renegade

[Bardo]

I just picked up a Renegade today and my Green Mountain 45 Cal Long range hunter barrel (1 in 30 twist) came today as well. I already had a Lyman peep sight and I have a Lyman globe front sight, but it is about .04 shorter then what IdahoRon uses. I had a decelerator pad for a Remington 700 so I will see if it will work. The RCBS mold Ron uses should be here in 2 days. I have a couple reams of #9 paper. But it will be a week before I see the boolit sizer. Hopefully everything will be ready and a few boolits casted when it shows up.

Bardo

Renegade I picked up today
149084

The stock, new barrel and recoil pad
149085

[idahoron]

Even though it is a new barrel I would work it over with JB's Bore paste. It will shine it up a bit and the paper will do the fine polish.

[Bardo]

Had the stock finished and went to mount the sight and had to remove some wood. The stock is now finished and almost all put back together.

Bardo

[idahoron]

Shoot I wish you would have said something. I did a tutorial on Lyman sights and Renegades. I ground the base not the wood.

[idahoron]

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/idahoron/Muzzleloaders/CuttingBase1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/idahoron/Muzzleloaders/CuttingBase2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/idahoron/Muzzleloaders/CuttingBase3.jpg

[Bardo]

Shoot I wish you would have said something. I did a tutorial on Lyman sights and Renegades. I ground the base not the wood.

For me the wood was easier. It was a 5 min fix. But if you weren't refinishing the stock it would be a problem.

Bardo

[Bardo]

It is finished. Now I just need some projectiles. Actually I need to put some JB Bore paste down the barrel, Maybe I will go do that now.

You may of noticed I didn't put a recoil pad on. When I put the Remington 700 up to it, its to big. If I start grinding it off I will hit the steel plate. What is a good pad that will fit?

Bardo

149170
149171

[idahoron]

My hawken has a sims limb saver. My Renegades have the Pachmyer slip on.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/idahoron/Muzzleloaders/HawkenwithRecoilpad3.jpg

[Bardo]

Well i finally got out and shot it, i actually came close to getting rid of the gun a few times. The rcbs mold cast at 399gr with a bhn of 9 paper patched and sized to .447+ I used a 1/8" hard felt wad with no lube. I used blackhorn 209 powder with a magspark ignition. That powder is awesome, shot 15 times and never cleaned the barrel. And the 15th boolit went down as easy as the first. (Which was very easy, way easier then a maxi ball, or sabot) Well i used 70gr of powder and it seemed to shot pretty good. At 25 yards it was 1 hole and at 100 yards it measured 2". I hope i can tighten that up some. I think i may up the powder and that well tighten things up some. I couldnt find any info on this powder with a 400gr 45 cal. slug in a 45 barrel.

Bardo

[Bardo]

Idahoron what lee shaver insert do you use? Curious what one you find best for hunting.

Bardo

[54bore]

Good shootin Bardo! Glad to hear you broke that thing out of hiding! Im not speaking for ron but i think he uses the smallest bead? I personally like the second from the smallest one and have it on my renegade, i have the smallest one on my cabelas hawken. I also like the crosshair, the lee shaver 17 inserts are amazing! I thought the ones that came with the lyman globe looked good, that was before my lee shaver card arrived, no comparison!! I wish lee shaver had some sort of fiber optic for low light, i ended up drilling a teeny tiny hole (74 wire bit) in one of my original lyman post inserts and put a .20 thousands fiber optic wire in it (same stuff used in archery sights) put a lighter to the end for a second and it starts to melt a bead, then clip it short enuf so that when you melt the back side it ends up a perfect fit and cant come out, my only fear of the lee shevers is not being able to see in low light, i played around with it in the house and found places it was hard to see, and that was in the day time! My new fiber optic post concoction will end up hunting with me. Sure wish shavers would come up with a tritium type insert

[koger]

Bardo on the one I finished last fall, I used a limbsaver for a H&R handi rifle, did very little grinding/sanding, it worked well.

[rodwha]

Glowinc.com has a good glow in the dark paint for sights you might be interested in instead of fiber optics.

[Bardo]

Bardo on the one I finished last fall, I used a limbsaver for a H&R handi rifle, did very little grinding/sanding, it worked well.
Im going to look into that, especially if i up the powder charge.

Bardo

[johnson1942]

i made a 45, 1/30 twist side lock last winter. put it on a stock i carved myself. use a magspark nipple also and blackhorn 209 powder. i swage a hollow base 335 grain bullet and it is .440 in diam. i use a 60 thousand thick poly or hard fiber wad between powder and the bullets base. it shoot best with 70 grains of 209 powder by volume. it shoot holes in holes and is a easy to hold off hand rifle. never ever have to wipe the barrel between shots as you said, i just wipe the bore clean when done shooting. my barrel was made by the oregon rifle barrel co. and is 30 inches long. you might get a little tighter groups with a 300 to 325 grain bullet. 400 grains may get a little wobblie furthur out but then it may not. you will have fun shooting your gun as it will be consistant in accuracy and last and last.

[Bardo]

i made a 45, 1/30 twist side lock last winter. put it on a stock i carved myself. use a magspark nipple also and blackhorn 209 powder. i swage a hollow base 335 grain bullet and it is .440 in diam. i use a 60 thousand thick poly or hard fiber wad between powder and the bullets base. it shoot best with 70 grains of 209 powder by volume. it shoot holes in holes and is a easy to hold off hand rifle. never ever have to wipe the barrel between shots as you said, i just wipe the bore clean when done shooting. my barrel was made by the oregon rifle barrel co. and is 30 inches long. you might get a little tighter groups with a 300 to 325 grain bullet. 400 grains may get a little wobblie furthur out but then it may not. you will have fun shooting your gun as it will be consistant in accuracy and last and last.

You acctually sent me some boolits with the .060 polywad and some freezer paper. I read your article also. You are the reason i got the magspark and the blackhorn 209. I took some of your boolits but didnt shoot any because my set trigger wasnt adjusted right and it wasnt working. I think the magspark was messing with the hammer not going all the way down. Anyways i didnt want to shoot any and if they didnt shoot well wonder if it was the trigger or boolit.

Also if i like the polywad i was going to try a pvc .040 thick (1mm) i work in a cabinet shop and can get all the 1mm banding i want and punch my own. I tried punching some 2mm but my press mount punch didnt like that. I could get out my old one and hammer them out.

Bardo

165024

[Bardo]

As for the front sight i would like to use one where i can see the target. I also like that because once i figure out what the size of the opening and post are in MOA then i can use it to hold for wind. I was pleased to find how accurate the rear sight was on for MOA with a 28" barrel.

Bardo

165023

[Bardo]

Fixed the set trigger. Had nothing to do with the magspark, there was a little chip of wood preventing it.

Bardo

[54bore]

As for the front sight i would like to use one where i can see the target. I also like that because once i figure out what the size of the opening and post are in MOA then i can use it to hold for wind. I was pleased to find how accurate the rear sight was on for MOA with a 28" barrel.

Bardo

165023

A gunsmith friend of mine absolutely swears by the circles, he use to shoot 500-600 yard stuff, hes a retired guy and been into blackpowder all his life, he has a picture album of some of the old muzzleloaders he built from ground up and they are truly master pieces! You can bet there is a reason lee shavers makes a card of just circles. That would be about the farthest thing i could imagine using? I want a bead, FINE bead i can put on my target

[C. Latch]

I saw the opening line of the thread, didn't notice the original date, and immediately clicked to see where you found a GM .45 barrel in stock.

April fools, I guess. :(

Seriously, though, I hope you enjoy it. I have a .50 GM barrel I'd love to get shooting but haven't took the time to do it yet.

[Bardo]

This is my first attempt at paper patching. This is the paper im using it is .002" thick. I believe this is good paper.

Bardo

165090

[johnson1942]

looks like you got really good paper. i used to double wrap but on another site i learned how to single wrap with freezer wrap paper and that is what i use now. comes off in one piece at the muzzle. its poly coated and 18 pound paper. learned it from the guys who shoot the really heavy bench muzzle loaders. they use a starter but i dont, just wrap, load and shoot. never ever any fliers.

[idahoron]

Idahoron what lee shaver insert do you use? Curious what one you find best for hunting.

Bardo

He is right I use the smallest pin.

[idahoron]

i made a 45, 1/30 twist side lock last winter. put it on a stock i carved myself. use a magspark nipple also and blackhorn 209 powder. i swage a hollow base 335 grain bullet and it is .440 in diam. i use a 60 thousand thick poly or hard fiber wad between powder and the bullets base. it shoot best with 70 grains of 209 powder by volume. it shoot holes in holes and is a easy to hold off hand rifle. never ever have to wipe the barrel between shots as you said, i just wipe the bore clean when done shooting. my barrel was made by the oregon rifle barrel co. and is 30 inches long. you might get a little tighter groups with a 300 to 325 grain bullet. 400 grains may get a little wobblie furthur out but then it may not. you will have fun shooting your gun as it will be consistant in accuracy and last and last.

I never got any wobble with mine. I have shot that bullet out to 300 yards quite a bit. I plan to get out to 600 yards this summer but I need a new place to shoot.

[idahoron]

This is my first attempt at paper patching. This is the paper im using it is .002" thick. I believe this is good paper.

Bardo


165090

That should be great paper.

[johnson1942]

i am finding that paperpatching can vary alot from shooter to shooter and still be very accurate. i am finding recently that patched bullets that started out .492 and also .494 and wrapped with the same paper all shoot the very same. those bullets really bump up alot and thats why they shoot so well. i just made 100 485 grain 50 cal bullets today and resized them before wrapping to .494 and will sight that gun my son gave back to me in with those. ron, how much powder do you use behind your 50 cal bullets? never used them in a inline before except a couple of rounds, i really want this one ready for any distance.

[idahoron]

I use 80 gr of pyrodex P. You know when I was testing some bullets several years ago I was using a Lee 459-405-HB. I made some bullets out of lead that was 18 BHN hard lead. That barrel is a .458 do I did most of the sizing unwrapped. Those bullets that hard were picky. If I was on top of everything I could shoot about 2" groups at 100 yards but I mean I had to be on top. The barrel had to be spotless. That was before I had my hardness tester. I finally got sick of them on that day and shot one into a soft dirt mound in front of me. I dug it out and the lead had clear marks from the rifling's. It proved that even as hard as they were they were bumping up. Not long after that I started to play with hardness. I found that in the bullets I use the the 45's liked harder lead than the 50's.

[johnson1942]

i use what ever lead i can find and one time it was 20 to 1. it shot just as good as the soft stuff. also powders other than real black bump up the bullet also. i remember years ago it was said your couldnt ring a barrel with pyrodex but one day i did just that. it was a hard stainless steel barrel and i ringed it good. up near the top so i cut it off below the ring and recrowned it and it shot even better with the shorter barrel. we live and learn.

[Bardo]

So what is a good group at a hundred yards with a peep sight?

Bardo

[johnson1942]

1 inch or less. a peep sight is as good as a scope to 200 yards. this is off of a rest, not off hand. i use the skinner after market marlin ghost ring back sight on several guns ive built. its simple, but strong and adjustable.

[Bardo]

Well with that 400gr rcbs boolits and 80gr or BH 209 it really shot great, but it hits like a mule. I am adding a recoil pad.

Bardo